More than 700 Law School faculty members and students packed Ames Courtroom yesterday afternoon to hear a series of speeches on issues stemming from the discipline actions against five black students involved in the OBU building seizures last semester.
The meeting-which included another 150 students who listened to the speakers from a classroom wired for sound-adjourned abruptly after three hours before discussing all the items on its agenda.
The five-man committee appointed to set up the meeting conferred hastily when students began to ask for an adjournment and announced that it would call another meeting next week-perhaps under a different format.
The overflow crowd was relatively orderly throughout most of the speeches by faculty and students, but several students started to speak unrecognized from the floor when the chair refused to entertain their motion for adjournment.
The students-many of whom protested the faculty meeting earlier in the week-claimed that the dwindling numbers of faculty and students at the end of the meeting precluded "the broad exchange of views" the faculty had intended.
The co-chairmen, Joseph D. Gebhardt, a second-year Law student, and Stanley S. Surrey, Jeremiah Smith Professor of Law, refused to recognize the motion at first, but finally adjourned the meeting after consulting with the committee.
Up to the last 15 minutes the meeting followed smoothly on its planned course as student and faculty speakers discussed a variety of questions about the specific cases and discipline in general.
The committee had intended to limit the discussion to "the general issues reflected by the pending cases," but a number of students-including three of the five black students disciplined-spoke about the cases in specific terms.
Disruptive Acts
Most of the discussion revolved around the question of whether disruptive acts should be punished if they were inspired by justifiable political goals.
The meeting adjourned before the four scheduled speakers could discuss the second topic-what authority should discipline such students for such acts.
Student speakers who opposed the punishment argued that the black students were justified in seizing University Hall because they had acted after exhausting all the existing channels for legitimate demands.
They pointed to the University's subsequent decision to sign two contracts which called for 19-23 per cent minority workers on construction sitesas a tacit admission of its racism.
"Most of us will agree that, but for the action of the black students, the University's practices would not have been changed," said Michael J. Haroz, a third-year Law student.
The students claimed that the responsibility for OBU's seizure rests on the Administration rather than the students.
Read more in News
Through the 1-Way Mirror Social RelationsRecommended Articles
-
'Rights and Freedoms of Students'Ten national educational associations representing students,administrators, and faculty members began drafting the following statement last fall and completed it last
-
Parietal HoursT HE Committee on Houses' recommendation for an increase in parietal hours comes as no surprise; Dean Ford's decision to
-
Fifteen's Report on the CrisisFollowing are excerpts from the committee of Fifteen's interim report on the causes of the April crisis. Copies of the
-
Rights and Responsibilities Committee Initiates New Discipline ProcedureThe new "Committee on Rights and Responsibilities" met yesterday and set up some of the procedures it will use to
-
Soc Rel Dept. Votes To Reinstate StauderThe Social Relations Department yesterday condemned the Joint Committee for its handling of the Stauder case and asked that the
-
Faculty Will Examine Discipline Statement In Meeting Next WeekThe Committee of Fifteen's discipline recommendations-to be considered by a special Faculty meeting Tuesday-will face at least seven attempted amendments